Hawaii can take
lesson from Amfac

In Henry Walker Jr.'s mind, it was the best time for sugar.

Raised in the business, Walker became president of Amfac Inc. when it was Hawaii's biggest sugar producer and a "Big Five" success story in the late 1960s.

But Walker knew that even as sugar was peaking, everything else on the plantation would be going downhill.

"Almost everything that could be done was done," he said.

"We'd gotten the most out of genetics and irrigation, so we had gotten all the production gains we could."

Sugar was of a different era. To survive, Amfac diversified into hotels, restaurants and retail stores.

Walker now hopes that Hawaii will be able to perform the same complex transformation.

"Tourism is not like sugar," he said. "We still haven't done a good enough job with tourism --we need to market this state."

Walker also sees Hawaii as home to high-priced specialty agriculture. Limu, or seaweed, for instance, is being grown on Molokai and is an appealing new niche market.

"There are other kinds of high-priced specialty crops that can be grown in small parcels. We should be studying that," he said.

The state, however, does not need to give in to gambling to spur tourism.

"Casinos is not the way we want to run our hotels," Walker said.

"Instead we need to sharpen our focus on tourism, diversify, enlarge and advertise.

Said the chairman emeritus of Amfac: "We have not begun to explore our opportunities."

About this Series The Honolulu Star-Bulletin is counting down to year 2000 with this special series. Each installment will chronicle important eras in Hawaii's history, featuring a timeline of that particular period. This is the final installment. Series Archive Project Editor: Lucy Young-Oda Chief Photographer:Dean Sensui